The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King will notch up another milestone thisupcoming weekend when it passes $600m at the international box office.

Spurred on by its final major market opening in Japan on Feb 14 on750 prints and what should be another batch of decent holdovers in 57 markets(Singapore finished this week on $3.1m), the fantasy finale should get a bigboost to its $595.1m international running total.

The Return Of The King's worldwide total is an orc's whisker over $947m and should pass$1bn within the next few weeks.

The Two Towers opened top in Japan in February 2003 on $6.9m from 643 theatresand finished on $65m.

The Return Of The King has now overtaken its trilogy predecessor's $583m final total andon Feb 8 was confirmed as the highest grossing picture of all time in Sweden,where it is still playing on 119 screens and has amassed $22.3m.

Buena Vista International (BVI) opens Brother Bear in the UK and Korea on Feb 13. As of Feb9 the animated picture had grossed $56.3m at the international box office.

Cold Mountain opens in Italy and Brazil on Feb 13 and executives will be hopingthe drama will add considerably to its $18.8m from BVI markets.

Fox International has three major bows on Feb 13 for its comedyCheaper By The Dozen: it goes out in the UK on 435 prints, Brazil on 200 andKorea on 70.

The picture has amassed $16m to date and can expect a strong debutin the UK where star Steve Martin enjoys a strong following.

By way of comparison, Bringing Down The House opened second there on $1.9m from 388sites, a decent bow considering The Matrix Reloaded was all the rage in its second week.

Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World opens in its penultimate Fox market ofHong Kong on Feb 12 on 32 prints. The drama has grossed $71.9m from Fox marketsand $96.6m industry-wide.

The comedy Stuck On You opened in Australia on Feb 12 on 192 and the picture hastaken $21.3m in its international markets to date.

Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International (CTFDI) openedthe drama Mona Lisa Smile in China on Feb 12 and the picture has grossed a laudable $45m todate.

The distributor also rolled out the Western mystery The Missing in its first major market of Germany onFeb 12 on 301 prints.

Latest figures put the horror title Gothika on $13.4m and children's tale PeterPan on $35m.

Universal opens the hit drama Lost In Translation through UIP in Spain on Feb 13 on 152prints. The picture has grossed $33m in its markets so far.

Latest figures put the drama 21 Grams on $17m and romantic comedy LoveActually on $166m.

Release information from Warner Bros Pictures International wasnot available at time of going to press. As of Feb 8 The Last Samurai had grossed more than $272m.